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Welcome to the Migraine and Emergency Room – ER Forum

I went to ER last Friday and it was a waste of my time. First they gave me Benadryl and Toradol and it didn’t even cut the edge off. Then they gave me a shot of dolitod not sure of spelling and they brought it down from a 10 to a 9 so they gave me another shot of it and brought it down to maybe an 8 and then sent me home. I have nothing but bad luck at ER’s.

I almost went yesterday. Migraine was horrible and unrelenting. I was crying and writhing in pain. But I kept thinking of sitting in the waiting room in those hard chairs and with those bright lights for God knows how long and the thought was intolerable. I thought it should last four hours. If I could bear this horror for four hours. So I did. I cried. I moaned. Finally it subsided. To add insult to injury I had two subsequent migraines later in the night that woke me. Thank goodness they didn’t last too long. But what a horrible night. Today I’ve done nothing. I’m exhausted. Having a few minor migraines compared to yesterday. My eyes are red and swollen and I’m exhausted.

I’m so sorry Elaine and scrapbookcindy. Going to the ER is so stressful for so many of us. Many doctors just don’t really know what to do with us and just wish to get us out of their emergency departments. Sometimes it is helpful to have your doctor write you a prescription for whatever protocol they want given to you. When you have to make that trip to the ER, give them the prescription. Most doctors will follow it if it is reasonable. Some don’t and seem to just make it their life’s work to make us as miserable as possible. Don’t get discouraged. Keep working toward eliminating triggers, getting good preventative therapy and a better abortive(s) to help you.

I’ve been a year and 5 months since my last ER visit. It took making some radical changes in my meds etc, and I may end up paying a price later, but for now, I am surviving and not needing hospital visits or stays. *crosses fingers*

I started having to go to the ER for my migraines almost 8 yrs ago. At the beginning I didn’t realize that what I had were migraines. One of the ER Dr.’s asked if I had ever seen a neurologist and then referred me to an ex-colleague of his. That referral was the best turn of events for me! Unfortunately we have found that the only real sure way to break my pain cycle is an ER visit to get my ‘cocktail’ of medications. I have used the same ER since the beginning of my attacks and have come to know the rotating Dr.’s very well. It’s almost like walking into Cheer’s, they all know my name. I started out going 3-4 times a year. Now I am there about 4-5 times a month. I feel like a human pin cushion! But it is comforting to know that the ER staff knows my whole history of Migraines and treats me as a person and a patient and not like a drug seeking liar.

Alasandra,
Are you and your neurologist working on Migraine prevention? How long have you been seeing him or her? I’m glad you get good care in the ER, but I know how hard it is to have to go to the ER with a Migraine.

Teri

Alasandra…

I too go just about that much.. in the past two years it’s actually been way more than that.. I have the same experience all the nurses and doctors know me.. except unfortunately they all decided to stop treating me…I DO have a great specialist but now I’ve been diagnosed with a nasty stomach disorder so my oral meds don’t work for pain or vomiting.. so sometimes I have no choice but to go to the ER…. it just sucks. I’m soo glad you have good results!

The ER is the last place I go as it depends on what dr. is working on how they treat my migraine. There are some that look at me as I am a drug seeker, and others that totally understand where I am coming from. When I explain that my headache specialist is out of town, boy am I frowned on. Treatment options are not always easy but if you can have your dr. give you something for pain it does help. My dr. does give me something for pain which I use sparingly. I have had to go to the er 3X’s since January, from every other week. I still have the daily migraines, but I stay at a 6-7 pain. I was staying at a 9-10 daily and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I am so grateful my dr. heard me and helped me with the pain.

I’ve always been hesitant to go to the ER – I have nothing to “show” them. I always have figured it’s easier to lay in bed waiting it out and ‘wishing for death’ than suffering the humiliation of doctors that don’t “get it”. However, I’ve started having an escalation in my headaches/migraines that my GP really thought warranted a trip to the ER. I’ll talk to my Neurologist about it next week. For those of you that do go to the ER – what do they do for you?

I had Botox injections 6 weeks ago, and the past 5 weeks have been a special little slice of a dark hot place. My migraines are much better, no icepick, throbbing pains. However, I’ve had a 5 week never ending, untouched by medication, headache above my eyes in the forehead region. My Neuro told me to go see my primary care Dr for a sinus problem. Its not sinus related, but I’ll play that game. On the day of my Dr’s appointment, he called in sick and his office never called me to let me know. My frustration level at that point jacked me up so badly, it escalated the headache to migraine proportions. I finally gave up at 3 am and went to the ER. Luckily my medical group sees only members, so I got right into a room, nurse had me disrobe and I’m thinking, finally someone will listen to me. The ER Doctor came in, listened to me for 2 minutes, never came closer than 3 feet, walked out saying he was ordering meds. He ordered Compazine and benadryl. The last time I was given these medications, I ended up having a double dose of benadryl due to the side effects of feeling like I was going to come out of my skin and borderline panic attack. I grit my teeth, play the game and lay there for an hour twitching, tears running down my face. Nurse comes in, asks my pain level. Its still at an 8. Doctor orders toradol and Pepcid. Another hour, and Dr comes in and asks me what my pain level was, I tell him 7. He says I’ll give you a little bit of dilaudid and discharging you. You need to see your primary care doctor to get your pain under control. The last time I was in the ER for a shot for my migraines was 9 months ago, this is not a frequent thing for me. My first thought was.. arent I supposed to come here for help to get my pain under control if I’m unable to at home? The Dr orders for me .5 mg of dilaudid.. when I get a migraine shot, I start with 2 mg’s of dilaudid and usually end up with 3 mg’s before I feel relief.

After all this, as the nurse comes in to discharge me, I’m still in tears 3 hours after I walked in. She asks me if I would like to see another physician as the one who treated me has gone home for the day. I tell the nurse I dont care, sure why not. She comes back 5 minutes later and says her Manager told her I was discharged and needed to leave.

As I’m waiting in the lobby for my husband to come check me out, I go to wait in my car as its quiet and I can get my sunglasses the nurse comes out and asks me where I am going. When I reply that I’m waiting for my husband, she threatens me with calling the local Police Department if I drive off.

I sit here in tears still, trying to get myself under control after filing a formal complaint with hospital administration. Not that it will do any good for me today, but perhaps it will help the next migraineur if they end up in the same hospital.

I am in agreement that the local ER’s see you as a “druggie” looking for her/his fix. I have drugs!! I try not to but sometimes you have to take them. I don’t need their drugs!! If I go to the ER I need help, not a look of disgust from the physician. I do love the survey one of my local ER’s has. It is computerized and they bring it to you before discharging you. HAHA Shouldn’t give that to me after treating me like that. However, thank you on the tip about the prescription for the ER. Never thought of that before.

Michelle,

I strongly suggest talking with your neuro who treats you for Migraine and letting him know about how problematic the ER is. Ask him about rescue medications that you can take at home when your regular meds don’t work. Ask him what you’re supposed to do in an after-hours or weekend situation when you need help and the ER is obviously not a solution.

I haven’t gone to the ER for a Migraine in at least five years because my Migraine specialist recognized that it’s not a good place for a Migraineur to be treated. My ER has alwyas been great in treating me, but my doctor feels it’s potentially dangerous for me to sit in the waiting room for hours, which could happen if they have a big trauma or emergency room.

If your doctor can’t or won’t help with this, it’s time for a new doctor. Take a look at http://migraine.com/blog/is-it-time-for-a-new-migraine-doctor/

I was at the ER last night and found the staff quite supportive and understanding in terms of getting me into a dark room and keeping the lights low when examining me etc. The resident on shift did say “we’ve come to the end of what we can offer you here at the ER, which is a bit of a bummer for you really”. Seriously, he did. I actually started laughing at that because it seemed so inappropriate and lacking in empathy. He said he’d send me home with some T3′s, I told him I was already on a Butrans 5 patch and really not interested in narcotics. That caught his attention. He said that if they don’t respond to narcotics then it must be a ‘true’ migraine. I wasn’t sure if that’s an actual name or category or if he just mean ‘real migraine’.I said I was after some kind of basile constriction because that would be the only thing to provide relief. As soon as i reassured him that my blood pressure doesn’t elevate on them, he ordered it right away. I was able to walk out three hours later. Unfortunately, my migraine is coming back less than 12 hours later.

WRENSONG,

I’m afraid your experience isn’t uncommon. the fact is, most ER physicians don’t really know what to do to treat Migraine attacks. They often assume that if they can get you some pain relief that you’ll go away and not come back. In reality they should be looking for ways to abort the attack. T3′s are one of the worst thing I can think of by the time you’re in the ER. What did they end up offering you for your attack? How are you doing today??

Hello,
we are new here. My wife suffers from chronic migraines. My Wife has had these since 2003. She would only go to the ER when she would really need too. We had been going to the local ER when there was nothing left for her to do. Well last month she had to go 2 times. So the dr that was on staff pretty much said to us he feels there is a problem. I did not even know how to respond to this. Long story short he pretty much flagged her as a drug seeker. We tried to explain to him all the details of her life. By then he really was not even listening. What do you do when you run into this. I feel so bad for my wife and i want to help her. Tomorrow we are going to see her pain management dr. It’s very frustrating to me that this dr did this to us. I’m glad i found this site there is so much good info on here.
thanks for any help